Employment

  • January 30, 2026

    Back Pay Over Vax Mandate Is Equitable Relief, Justices Hear

    A U.S. Air Force reservist told the U.S. Supreme Court this week that equitable relief under a religious freedom law should extend to his back pay claim related to his refusal to follow its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, arguing he's only seeking "status-restoring relief."

  • January 30, 2026

    DOL Adds More H-2B Visas For Imperiled Employers

    The U.S. Department of Labor issued a temporary rule Friday making another 64,716 H-2B visas for seasonal, non-agricultural workers available for fiscal year 2026, but only to employers facing severe financial hardship.

  • January 30, 2026

    Attys Rip Judge-Shopping Sanctions As Bid To 'Rewrite' Rules

    Two Alabama attorneys who were sanctioned for allegedly judge shopping in a civil rights case urged the Eleventh Circuit to toss the sanctions Friday, arguing the judges accusing them were seeking to "rewrite" the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

  • January 30, 2026

    1st Circ. Revives Ex-Hasbro Workers' Religious Vax Bias Suit

    Two former Hasbro employees who sought religious exemptions from the company's COVID-19 vaccination policy plausibly alleged they were disciplined because of their accommodation requests, the First Circuit ruled, reviving the workers' retaliation and discrimination suit.

  • January 30, 2026

    FTC Warns 42 Law Firms Of DEI 'Anticompetitive Collusion'

    The Federal Trade Commission announced Friday that it has sent warning letters to 42 major law firms for their purported participation in an outside diversity, equity and inclusion program, alleging their participation could constitute anticompetitive collusion.

  • January 30, 2026

    Topgolf Worker Tees Up Class Wage Claims In Wash. Court  

    A Washington state worker is targeting Topgolf over allegations of below-par compensation practices, according to a new proposed class action alleging break and overtime violations.

  • January 30, 2026

    Post-Gazette Says Health Plan Order Contempt Bid Is Moot

    The publisher of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says it is complying with a court order to put its newsroom employees back on a union-sponsored healthcare plan, so a request from the National Labor Relations Board to hold it in contempt is moot.

  • January 30, 2026

    Schlumberger Sues Ex-Employees Alleging Trade Secrets Theft

    Oil field services firm Schlumberger Technology Corp. sued two former longtime employees and two companies, alleging that its trade secrets were stolen during a business collaboration.

  • January 30, 2026

    1st Circ. Says Worker's Cold Feet Can't Halt Wage Deal

    A former Siemens Industry union electrician's change of heart on an $84,000 settlement to end her suit seeking unpaid wages cannot undo the deal, the First Circuit ruled, calling the former employee a "disgruntled" litigant.

  • January 30, 2026

    AstraZeneca Beats FMLA Suit After Ex-Worker Went Silent

    AstraZeneca won't have to face a former employee's lawsuit alleging the pharmaceutical giant fired him for taking medical leave to address his gastrointestinal illness, a Connecticut federal judge ruled, saying he failed to respond to discovery and motions and ignored court orders.

  • January 30, 2026

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London saw collapsed solar bonds company Rockfire Capital sue the Royal Bank of Scotland, e-ticket platform Eventbrite target the owners of Salford Red Devils rugby club over an alleged contract breach, and Scottish distiller William Grant & Sons square off against a former MP in a trademark tussle tied to its Glenfiddich whisky. 

  • January 29, 2026

    Apple Aims To Boot Anti-Moonlighting Suit To Arbitration

    Apple Inc. urged a Seattle federal judge to throw out a former employee's proposed class action accusing the company of unlawfully barring lower-wage workers from taking second jobs, arguing that plaintiff Gabriel Fisher gave up his right to sue when he signed an arbitration agreement included in his job offer.

  • January 29, 2026

    Frito-Lay Hit With Wage Claims By Wash. Machine Operator

    A Frito-Lay Inc. employee launched a proposed class action in Washington state court, accusing the company of violating state labor law.

  • January 29, 2026

    No New Trial For Atty Who Sued For Nassar Scandal Work Pay

    A former associate from a Houston-based law firm lost his request to revive his wage and hour suit stemming from purported missteps he made while working as a defense attorney for former Olympic gymnastics coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi following the Larry Nassar scandal, after a Texas appeals court said Thursday he neglected to preserve the alleged errors he challenged.

  • January 29, 2026

    Ex-Steel Worker Tells 11th Circ. $0 OT Award Can't Stand

    A former worker asked the Eleventh Circuit Thursday to order a new trial in a suit accusing an Alabama steel mill of failing to fully compensate him for hours worked and overtime, arguing there was nothing to support the jury awarding him $0 in Fair Labor Standards Act damages.

  • January 29, 2026

    NYC Sets New Wage Standards For Security Guards

    Security guards at private buildings in New York City will be entitled to the same minimum wage, paid time off and benefits received by security guards at public buildings under a new union-supported city law enacted Thursday.

  • January 29, 2026

    6th Circ. Tosses Black Flight Attendant's Race Bias Suit

    The Sixth Circuit declined Thursday to reinstate a Black Delta flight attendant's suit claiming she was disciplined out of racial bias following a verbal altercation with a colleague, ruling the airline acted fairly based on evidence that the flight attendant made an alleged threat during the incident.

  • January 29, 2026

    Ex-Arby's Employee Sues Over Gender Identity Harassment

    Arby's has been sued in Illinois federal court by a nonbinary ex-employee who claims they suffered pervasive discrimination and ridicule from their supervisor over their gender identity, and that reports of the manager's sexual harassment went unaddressed.

  • January 29, 2026

    Wilcox's NLRB Firing Won't Be Reconsidered By DC Circ.

    Former National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox's challenge to her firing has hit another wall, with the full D.C. Circuit saying it won't reconsider a panel's decision to drop her lawsuit seeking reinstatement.

  • January 29, 2026

    NJ Justices Say Title IX Preempts Rutgers Union Contract

    A grievance procedure in a local union's collective negotiation agreement with Rutgers University is preempted by Title IX, the New Jersey Supreme Court said Thursday, reversing a lower court's decision that forced the university into post-termination arbitration over a custodian fired for sexual harassment.

  • January 29, 2026

    ADA Settlement Brings Changes To Detroit Courthouses

    A settlement in an Americans with Disabilities Act class action brought by two attorneys and a community activist will lead to ADA-compliant upgrades like private bathrooms, accessible voting machines and new signage at municipal buildings serving Detroit and Wayne County.

  • January 29, 2026

    Nurse Fired In Pandemic-Era RIF Can't Reinstate Age Bias Suit

    The Sixth Circuit backed the dismissal of an age bias suit from a nurse who claimed a medical center used a COVID-19-related reduction in force as an excuse to fire her, ruling a supervisor calling one of her colleagues a "young star" wasn't linked to her termination.

  • January 29, 2026

    Full 1st Circ. To Review Cop's Suspension For Facebook Post

    The full First Circuit has agreed to review a Massachusetts police officer's suspension for making disparaging comments about George Floyd on a personal Facebook page, setting aside an opinion in the police department's favor and teeing up an appeal focused on the speech rights of government employees.

  • January 29, 2026

    Texas Atty May Face Sanctions For Missing Discovery Hearing

    A Colorado federal judge ordered a Texas attorney representing a company accused of luring temporary agricultural workers to the U.S. through false promises to explain why he shouldn't be sanctioned for missing a telephone discovery hearing.

  • January 29, 2026

    Calif. Jury Convicts Ex-Google Engineer Of Stealing AI Secrets

    A California federal jury on Thursday found former Google software engineer Linwei Ding guilty of seven counts of trade secret theft and seven counts of economic espionage in a criminal trial over allegations that he stole the tech giant's artificial intelligence trade secrets to help himself and China.

Expert Analysis

  • In NY, Long COVID (Tolling) Still Applies

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    A series of pandemic-era executive orders in New York tolling state statutes of limitations for 228 days mean that many causes of action that appear time-barred on their face may continue to apply, including in federal practice, for the foreseeable future, say attorneys at Sher Tremonte.

  • How Calif. Law Cracks Down On Algorithmic Price-Fixing

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    Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two laws this month significantly expanding state antitrust enforcement and civil and criminal penalties for the use or distribution of shared pricing algorithms, as the U.S. Department of Justice has recently wielded the Sherman Act to challenge algorithmic pricing, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • 3rd Circ. Ruling Forces A Shift In Employer CFAA Probes

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    The Third Circuit's recent ruling in NRA Group v. Durenleau, finding that "unauthorized access" requires bypassing technical barriers rather than simply violating company policies, is forcing employers to recalibrate insider misconduct investigations and turn to contractual, trade secret and state-level claims, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Opinion

    High Court, Not A Single Justice, Should Decide On Recusal

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    As public trust in the U.S. Supreme Court continues to decline, the court should adopt a collegial framework in which all justices decide questions of recusal together — a reform that respects both judicial independence and due process for litigants, say Michael Broyde at Emory University and Hayden Hall at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

  • Series

    Traveling Solo Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Traveling by myself has taught me to assess risk, understand tone and stay calm in high-pressure situations, which are not only useful life skills, but the foundation of how I support my clients, says Lacey Gutierrez at Group Five Legal.

  • Opinion

    DOJ's Tracing Rule For Pandemic Loan Fraud Is Untenable

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    In conducting investigations related to COVID-19 relief fraud, the government's assertion that loan proceeds are nonfungible and had to have been segregated from other funds is unsupported by underlying legislation, precedent or the language establishing similar federal relief programs, say Sharon McCarthy, Jay Nanavati and Lasya Ravulapati at Kostelanetz.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Client Service

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    Law school teaches you how to interpret the law, but it doesn't teach you some of the key ways to keeping clients satisfied, lessons that I've learned in the most unexpected of places: a book on how to be a butler, says Gregory Ramos at Armstrong Teasdale.

  • Loper Bright's Evolving Application In Labor Case Appeals

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    Following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, which upended decades of precedent requiring courts to defer to agency interpretations of federal regulations, the Third and Sixth Circuits' differing approaches leave little certainty as to which employment regulations remain in play, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

  • How DHS' H-1B Proposal May Affect Hiring, Strategic Planning

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    For employers, DHS’ proposal to change the H-1B visa lottery from a random selection process to one favoring higher-wage workers may increase labor and compliance costs, limit access to entry-level international talent, and raise strategic questions about compensation, geography and long-term workforce planning, says Ian MacDonald at Greenberg Traurig.

  • Where 4th And 9th Circ. Diverge On Trade Secret Timing

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    Recent Fourth and Ninth Circuit decisions have revealed a deepening circuit split over when plaintiffs must specifically define their alleged trade secrets, turning the early stages of trade secret litigation into a key battleground and elevating the importance of forum selection, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: 3 Tips On Finding The Right Job

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    After 23 years as a state and federal prosecutor, when I contemplated moving to a law firm, practicing solo or going in-house, I found there's a critical first step — deep self-reflection on what you truly want to do and where your strengths lie, says Rachael Jones at McKool Smith.

  • Series

    Painting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Painting trains me to see both the fine detail and the whole composition at once, enabling me to identify friction points while keeping sight of a client's bigger vision, but the most significant lesson I've brought to my legal work has been the value of originality, says Jana Gouchev at Gouchev Law.

  • H-2A Rule Rollback Sheds Light On 2 Policy Litigation Issues

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    The Trump administration’s recent refusal to defend an immigration regulation implemented by the Biden administration highlights a questionable process that both parties have used to bypass the Administrative Procedure Act’s rulemaking process, and points toward the next step in the fight over universal injunctions, says Mark Stevens at Clark Hill.

  • What's At Stake At High Court For Presidential Removal Power

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    Two pending U.S. Supreme Court cases —Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook — raise fundamental questions about the constitutional separation of powers, threaten the 90-year-old precedent of Humphrey's Executor v. U.S. and will determine the president's authority to control independent federal agencies, says Kolya Glick at Arnold & Porter.

  • Employer Considerations As Ill. Ends Mandatory Fact-Finding

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    Illinois recently eliminated mandatory fact-finding conferences, and while such meetings tend to benefit complainants, respondent employers should not dismiss them out of hand without conducting a thorough analysis of the risks and benefits, which will vary from case to case, says Kimberly Ross at FordHarrison.

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